An articulating mount has a spring in compression, inside an arm attached to a point of rotation. It functions to counter balance the weight of an apparatus mounted to it and allow the user to comfortably raise and lower the mounted apparatus as desired and have it remain in the same position without the need to perform any additional steps to keep the articulated mount from moving.
Articulating mounts are commonly used to support relatively light weight medical apparatuses in hospitals, medical offices, nursing homes, long term care, and other healthcare facilities and environments. Common relatively light weight medical apparatuses include, but are not limited to, sensors, lights, flat screen monitors, x-ray projections systems and cameras.
Of course, articulating mounts are also used in other industries besides the healthcare industry, including for example, hair salons, spas, retail fixtures, information technology, etc. The mounted apparatuses can include hair dryers, televisions, computers, retail product displays and samples, commercial presentation material, etc.
Previous articulating mounts for medical apparatuses are bulky, costly as well as labor intensive in their assembly. Many articulating mounts also have arms which are off-set, such as those in U.S. Pat. No. 6,261,023. Their functionality is also reduced due to their complexity, multitude of parts, and decreased reliability. In particular, the articulating mounts of many healthcare support systems are moved quite often and may unacceptably fail when rotating components in the mount become worn. When an articulating mount fails, the supported apparatus may suddenly or unexpectedly drop, causing damage to the apparatus and potential harm to a patient depending on the functions performed by the apparatus.